Health Emergency
digital file Colour Sound 1984 25:43
Summary: Health Emergency, made by Triple Vision Productions/Vida examines the hidden cuts facing the health services in Brent.
Title number: 22988
LSA ID: LSA/30208
Description: The video is narrated by three narrators – one represents the government and their demands for ‘efficiency’ through cuts, another represents the voice of a local resident in Brent, and the final voice effectively speaks for the documentarians, voicing their direct frustration and confrontation with the country’s lawmakers.
The documentary reveals a place card of the tree of power in the health authority: from Government > DHSS > Regional Health Authority > District Health Authority > District Management Team. The film is composed primarily of talking head interviews with trade union members, local GPs, nurses and members of the District Health Authority. The documentary argues that by reducing the number of beds available, and shutting down certain wards, the government is preparing to close down certain hospitals, particularly Central Middlesex in Brent. We see local health workers fight back, by lobbying against the cuts to keep their hospital functioning and how the action of trade unions is empowering local staff to speak up without fear of repercussions. The documentary then highlights how in November 1983, Brent Health Emergency received leaked information that the Regional Health Authority lined up the Regional Middlesex Hospital as one of the eight general hospitals to be closed in the region. Tracing the domino effect of hidden NHS cuts, the documentary exposes how reducing the number of beds in the name of ‘efficiency’ had led to high readmission rates; how cuts to the Middlesex Hospital then placed greater strain on neighbouring hospitals; and how the diversion from NHS to ‘community care’ is ineffective as the district nursing department faces greater strain. A young Jeremy Corbyn appears at one point, protesting against NHS cuts outside a derelict building, formerly a part of St George’s Hospital. The film also examines how Brent, a borough composed of a large immigrant population, faces structural barriers and racial health inequalities, as a result. FILM WAS INITIALLY INDEPENDENT THEN BOUGHT BY CHANNEL 4.
Credits: Triple Vision Productions (Producer); Penny Dedman (Director); Terry Flaxton (Director); Terry Flaxton (Camera operator); Penny Dedman (Producer); Lucille Melchor (Commentator); Vass Anderson (Commentator); Antony Cooper (Sound)
Cast: "John Hider (Brent Health & NUPE National Union of Public Employees), Alyson Bunn (Nurse, COHSE Confederation of Health Service Employees), Steve Iliffe (Inner City GP), Marla Mclaughlin (Brenth Health Emergency), Adrian Beattle (Staff Nurse, Neuroscience), Deva Samaroo (Nurse, Community Health Council), Reece Campbell (Secretary of NUPE Branch), Vera Mitchell (Brent Health Emergency), Sue Broome (NUPE Assistant to Branch Secretary), Paul Noone (Consultant, Royal Free), Jeremy Corbyn MP, Rev David Haslam (Brent DHA District Health Authority), Marianne Craig (Community Health Council Secretary), Judith Moreton (Health Visitor). Thanks to: Maria McLaughlin, Debra Isaacson, Vera Mitchell, Marianne Craig, Pam Thorme, Noreen Burnard, Jeanette Mitchell, Julie & Daughter, Malcolm Harris and the participants.
Triple Vision production
Voiceovers: Lucille Melchor, Vass Anderson, Vera Mitchell
Music: John Barker
Sound and Additional Camera work: Antony Cooper
Lighting, Camera and Co-director: Terry Flaxton
Producer/Director: Penny Dedman. Commissioned by: Brent Health emergency
Funded by the GLC Working for London
"
Keywords: health; NHS
Locations: Brent, London
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